Shelton Reacts To Report On High School Fire Code Violations

Shelton officials must develop a corrective action plan” to resolve hundreds of fire code violations at Shelton High School detailed in a report released last week by the Connecticut Fire Marshal’s office.

While city officials stressed that there was little in the report they didn’t already know, the sheer number of the 579 violations listed in its 118 pages was sobering.

I don’t think the building is unsafe at all,” said Mayor Mark Lauretti, who noted that his son is a student at the school and his sister and sister-in-law are teachers there.

Jeffrey Beckham, a spokesman for the state Fire Marshal’s office, echoed that assessment — with conditions.

Is It Safe?

Beckham said the fire code violations that were deemed life safety issues” have already been corrected.

Otherwise, the building would not be allowed to remain open, he added.

But Beckham said that doesn’t mean the remaining items do not have to be resolved.

They are violations of the fire code and involve a risk to the public, so they do have to be corrected,” he said.

Fire Marshal James Tortora said he would meet with school officials to help draw up the corrective action plan for dealing with the remaining violations.

Schools Superintendent Freeman Burr said he would meet Wednesday with school maintenance staff to go over the report’s list of fire code violations.

He had not finished reading the report yet Tuesday afternoon and only spoke said he had only spoken briefly about it with Tortora and Lauretti.

But Burr questioned why so many of the violations were not addressed during a $25 million renovation of Shelton High School started in 2006, noting that the state’s school facilities unit signed off on the design specifications for the project to approve it for state cost reimbursement.

He said he needed more information to determine whether the corrective actions could be done by the school district’s maintenance staff or would require architectural designs and a construction contractor.

Fire Marshal Responds

Another issue that has yet to be resolved is the state Fire Marshal’s review of Tortora.

FILEThe investigation by Connecticut Fire Marshal Robert Ross’s office was initiated by the city in response to a complaint by Shelton Deputy Fire Marshal Ben McGorty in January 2011.

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Beckham said an administrative proceeding is pending that could result in decertification of Tortora’s credentials.

He said certification reviews are usually conducted on the local level. It is relatively uncommon for the state fire marshal to initiate one.

Tortora admitted that he and his deputy fire marshals missed some violations over the years.

He said he had not finished reviewing the report yet and could not comment on it specifically.

Lauretti said he, too, had not finished reading the report, so he would not pass judgment” on Tortora at this time.

Renovation, Then Fire

Some of the violations in the report go back decades and were clearly missed by officials following the $25 million renovation of Shelton High School that started in 2006.

Numerous deficiencies came to light after an accidental fire that broke out on Dec. 30, 2008.

WTNHThe school was not in session because of the Christmas break, but students were in the building at the time for athletic events and other activities. 

The fire was not blamed on any of the issues involving a fire code violation.

Following the fire, the possibility of numerous unrecorded fire code violations became a political issue in the 2009 mayoral campaign between Lauretti and Democrat Chris Jones, who is a Shelton volunteer firefighter.

The aftermath of the fire also revealed that school officials were unaware that the school had long-standing fire code violations that had not been addressed.

In response, state Rep. Jason Perillo (R‑Shelton) sponsored a bill, passed in 2009, to require local fire marshals to send fire inspection reports for school buildings to the local school boards and school superintendents.

Violation Specifics

Lauretti said many of the fire code violations involved minor housekeeping matters,” such as the improper use of electrical extension cords, which should be corrected by the school staff.

He said other violations involve maintenance issues, such as doors that do not open or close correctly, that should be corrected by the Board of Education maintenance personnel and custodians.

Many others were related to deficiencies in doors that had multiple locks, nonfunctioning self-closing mechanisms or damage that reduced their fire resistance ratings.

Numerous violations involved unprotected penetrations” in walls.

Tortora said that meant there were holes for pipes and wiring that were not properly sealed, a condition that also affected their fire resistance ratings.

Fire resistance ratings are specified periods of time in which a door or wall should hold back a fire from spreading. Higher ratings requiring longer time periods are required where fire hazards are more serious, such as near heating boilers or electrical boxes.

An unknown number of those violations have already been corrected, however. 

Lauretti noted that the city has spent $180,000 replacing doors in Shelton High School hallways, stairwells and classrooms that didn’t meet fire code specifications but had not been included in the $25 million renovation.

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